In the past several years the use of home satellite dishes located in the yards of home owners for receiving television signals from satellites orbiting the earth has increased in popularity. These satellite dishes reflect the television signals which are transmitted from the satellites which encircle the equator and bounce the microwaves to a center piece mounted above the dish called a focal point. This collected signal is then transferred by appropriate electronic equipment to the television set in the owner's home. There are presently a number of satellites encircling the equator in a space referred to as the "Clarke Belt" which is an area approximately 23,200 miles from earth. At this high orbit level a satellite will orbit at a speed equal to the earth's rotation and yet be stationery over one position at the equator. This is called a Geostationary orbit.
Today, most all television signals are beamed up to one or more of the satellites which changes the signals frequency and sends the signal back to earth where it is collected by these parabolic reflectors referred to as dishes. These dishes vary in size and structure depending upon their geographical location. A satellite is aimed at a particular portion of the earth called the foot print area with the satellite signal getting weaker and weaker as the area expands outwardly. Thus, the distance that the dish is located from the middle of the foot print area determines the size of the required dish.
There have been numerous types of supports on which the dishes are mounted which enable the various satellites to be tracked to provide for a greater variety of television reception. Since the elevation and east-west direction of each satellite is different, a mount that will swing from east to west a full 180.degree. or more is desired while at the same time allowing for an arched swing across the sky that keeps the dish at 100% tracking of the Clarke Belt above the equator. Secondly, the mount must have sufficient strength for the support of the dish. These dishes can run up to 400 pounds of dead weight which when subjected to wind loading results in an extremely high stress factor on the various nuts, bolts and structural members of the mount.
It only takes a movement of less than a few inches to knock a dish off the satellite signal. Thus, if the mount is not extremely sturdy, even a small breeze can move the dish enough, due to its large surface area and resulting force moment, to remove or seriously disrupt the incoming signal. These mounts, in addition to providing a complete sweep from east to west without getting off track from the Clarke Belt, must provide means for plumb alignment. The main mounting post usually will be embedded in concrete or mounted on a concrete embedded pad and can move due to settling or ground conditions affected by frost, rain, snow, etc.
Certain types of mounts have provided a manually adjusted tracking mechanism by a screw jack which will extend and retract the actuator arm of the mount. Other types of motorized mounts have been used but do not provide the desired adjustment and alignment features desired for the aiming arm on which the satellite dish is mounted to achieve the most satisfactory results. Likewise, the motor and drive mechanism for the motorized mount constructions are affected by the weather causing operating and maintenance problems.